Nolan was flattered by the kind elder’s attitude. On a whim, he rearranged some things within his primary spatial bag and then tossed a basic one up into the air. After he accepted it the yellow-robed elder showed the slightest signs of shock, though the gleaming glint in his eyes told of his appreciation for the gesture.

“I used them like this,” said Nolan, who willed three pieces of fractured tile to rotate around his head on a whim. “They were a gift from my Sect Master. I feel bad taking such a priceless treasure away from you, even though I earned it. I hope you’ll accept them.”

The old man stowed the bag away and then gave him a faint smile before he turned to address the crowd one last time. “Since this young man has beaten my challenge I hope that you’ll all be good to him if you happen to see him around. Now, as our honoured guest said earlier, I suppose it’s about time for supper!” He flew off into the sky just above the city and disappeared behind one of the larger buildings. The wooden platform began to crumble as soon as he vanished, a simple yet impeccably executed construction arrayment.

Dope, Nolan thought as he made his way back to the others at a pace befitting his cultivation level. Never hurts to grease some wheels like that.

He’d given the man two of the larger needles made from the hardened hair of the armoured sloth. They were constructed from materials taken from a Genesis-staged demonic beast and were capable of piercing the body of a human being at the same stage so long as enough force was applied. While Nolan wasn’t able to do so it was a different story for an arrayment practitioner on the same level as the competition’s host, of which he’d only encountered a few.

Sean clapped Nolan on the back as he landed beside his friends.

“Good job, kid! That guy was pissed when you won. Doesn’t get more satisfying than that.”

“Yeah, good job Nolan! That was so cool. Haldi and his mom couldn’t believe it!”

“Thanks guys. What, no words of praise for me Ian?”

“I’m sorry, guys. Those three will definitely seek us out later to start some trouble.”

Nolan waved him off. “No worries man, it’s just another day in the life. We’ll deal with things as they come.”

“Now I know why my father didn’t bring me last time…”

“Just learn from this and don’t be so obnoxious next time. Anyway, you guys got anything you wanna do next?”

While they deliberated on how to spend the rest of their evening, the sweetly disposed woman approached them with her son, their grey robes pulled tight around them.

“Excuse me. If you’re wondering where to go next, things are much livelier towards the centre of the city. We’re heading there now, if you’d like to accompany us.”

Esteban looked over with shining eyes. “Let’s do that!”

Nolan exchanged looks with the others and then shrugged. “Yeah, that’d be great. Thanks for the invite, um…”

“Cera.”

“Ah, Cera. I think we’ll take you up on your offer.”

“Wonderful.” A gentle smile appeared behind the curtain of auburn hair, which she gently brushed aside with a slim finger. “I think Haldi would enjoy the company. Oh, before we go, could you introduce your friends?”

Once they were finished with the introductions Cera and her son took the lead and led them to a large street wide enough for eight bulky carriages to stand abreast with one another. It was currently dotted with dozens of events and attractions similar to the challenge that Nolan had just completed, though none were nearly as trying. Most prevalent were the street stalls where travelling merchants enthusiastically sold their wares, mainly food, clothing, jewelry, armour, weapons, and miscellaneous equipment.

The group mainly stuck to the activities that filled their fields of view, many designed in the style of the carnival games that Nolan had enjoyed at the yearly fairs back in Collinsville. Although they were more rudimentary in presentation, they were catered toward people with stronger physiques than the ones he was used to, which made them much more fun. Most common were the arm wrestling tables that never seemed to leave their sights, where anybody could challenge the host so long as they possessed similar cultivation levels. Aside from these tables—most of which were broken at this point of the festival—there were plenty of ring toss stations where the wooden pegs moved in step with the hosts’ inner essence or spiritual energy, along with games of chance and gambling.

The kids considered it a competition of sorts, though Esteban saw more success in his endeavours. Though he was five levels lower than Haldi in cultivation, Esteban’s true strength was somewhere in the realm of the first level of Integration, largely inferior to Nolan when he’d been at the same level but remarkably impressive nonetheless.

Sean lost a hundred spirit stones in a series of shifty dice games, though Nolan won them back and then some thanks to the ‘magic touch’ that his spiritual sense gave him. The host accused him of cheating but could do nothing as he walked away with twice as much as they had lost, though the potbellied man showed up with some friends a while later to demand that they turn over all of their belongings. Contrary to her simple style of dress Cera seemed to possess some authority within the city. All it took to diffuse the situation was a quick flash of the yellow medallion that she wore tucked beneath her robes and a quick glare, to which the host and his reinforcements stuttered out apologies and then scampered away with worried faces.

We’ve made a pretty cool friend, Nolan thought as a group of affluent revellers caught notice of Cera and acknowledged her with polite nods as they passed by. Seeing as how Ridgerock was a kingdom there was a good chance that their new acquaintances were a part of the noble class. I’ll hook them up with a gift before we leave. He’d acquired hundreds of spatial bags throughout his travels and not one of them had been empty. Even if he couldn’t find something suitable he always had the rudimentary cultivation-enhancing pellets that Uncle Grey taught him how to make during his last visit to the glade. These weren’t nearly as effective as the Dragonshade Pellets that he and his friends had recently refined but they were still pretty impressive to most people.

That reminds me. “Hey Cera, if I wanted to sell a bunch of random stuff in Mason, where would my best bet be?”

“Well, that depends. What sort of stuff?”

“Weapons and equipment, medicinal pellets, demonic beast materials like bones, blood, meat, and cores… All sorts I guess.”

“You’ll want the White Star auction house in the central area of the city, though you’ll have to wait until tomorrow because today’s final auction has already ended. We’d just come from there when we met you.”

“Are you selling the black halmite?” Haldi asked. “I bet my father would be interested in—”

“He already has a weapon.” She placed a small stack of golden cards in her son’s hand and pushed him forward. “Run on now and go play with Esteban. I need to talk to Nolan about something.”

“What’s on your mind?”

“It’s about Keplin, the man who appeared on the rooftop back there.”

“What about him?”

“I’ve only met him once, but I’ll never forget it. At that time a servant in our friend’s household accidently spilled a glass of wine on his robe. He repelled the liquid with projected inner essence but still grew so angry that he killed her on the spot.”

“Really? Was this in Ridgerock?”

“No, it was in the neighbouring state where my closest friend lives. He stopped in on his way here for the festival. Unfortunately I was there alone and no one present could oppose him. He went on to eat and drink as if nothing had happened, but almost immediately threatened the other servants to quickly take the woman’s body away. That man is an animal.”

If his sect is so amazing then what kind of people are you hanging around to have this guy over for dinner? Nolan snatched a meat pie from a nearby food stall and left a silver card upon its wooden surface. “What kind of group is the Nightshadow Sect anyway? How do they compare to the Bloodhand Sect near the easterly kingdoms?”

“I actually don’t know much about either of them. All I know is that the king of this nation is acquainted with an elder of their sect, who seems to have told Keplin about Ridgerock. Their lands are thousands of leagues to the west of the continent so it’s a bit strange that he’s here, but regardless you should be careful. He’s a bit more restrained within our borders but his sect is many times more powerful than this kingdom and he knows that we’re aware of it.”

Esteban and Haldi ran over with enthusiasm, the latter handing his mother a sleek wooden hairpin. “I won this for you in a game of rings. Esteban said that Nolan would enchant it with an arrayment for you.”

“About that.” Esteban turned to Nolan and handed him a large green gemstone. “I won this for you in a game of rings. Do you think maybe you could do it?”

“This demonic core’s only at the fifth level of Profound Entry. Why would I want this measly rock?”

Since Sean and Ian were off somewhere in the crowd Nolan didn’t have to hear any sort of rebuke for speaking to Esteban so straightforwardly, not that it would have mattered.

“Seriously? What about my childish innocence?”

Cera stepped forward with an awkward smile. “Please don’t mind my son. I like this hairpin how it is.”

“Hey, I was just giving him a hard time. It’ll only take me a few minutes. If you want me to lay an arrayment on that hairpin then it’s no problem at all, trust me.”

“Well, if you’re offering then I won’t say no.”

She handed him the hairpin, which he held out in front of him for a few moments. “Hmm, I can’t really take requests since I can only do basic things. I hope that’s all right.”

“Anything you do is a great favour. There are so many strong cultivators in this kingdom but not many of them are arrayment practitioners. Since you outperformed a disciple from a big sect then I’m confident for you.”

“Alright, let’s take a look-see.”

The slim hairpin was made from the hardwood of an unknown tree, with tiny butterflies engraved along its breadth in slightly lighter shades of brown than the pin’s varnished body.

What can I even do with this thing? Though the wood was particularly dense, someone at the first level of Profound Entry could easily snap it. That meant that he could only infuse it with a certain degree of energy else it might explode.

A light smirk followed a brief moment of thought. That could work.

In regards to the first week of Nolan’s studies as an arrayment practitioner Uncle Grey had initially taught him ten simple arrayment diagrams, the first of hundreds that the old ghost had promised to teach him. These were barrier, sealing, construction, reconstruction, reinforcement, preservation, enchanting, detection, attack, and regenerative arrayments. These classifications held countless thousands of possible variations, though he’d only learned the most basic diagrams of each.

Once he’d decided on the diagrams and estimated the amount of energy necessary to sustain them he calmly projected two set amounts of spiritual energy and patiently arranged them into two different diagrams. He closed his eyes to focus and condensed the energy within the diagram before activating the arrayment via its entry point. The following flash of light was so bright that as it caused hundreds of eyes to turn in his direction.